Sky's New VIP Programme Will Give You Free Stuff if You Don't Cancel Your Subscription

You know the drill. You ring up Sky declaring that your subscription is too expensive, and that you'd like to leave and give your money to someone else. Then Sky offers you some sort of discount or extra benefits in an attempt to keep you on as a customer. So you stay and continue to give them your cash. Well after today those calls might be a bit different.

Today Sky has revealed that this idea of bribing customers into staying is going official with Sky VIP. It's a loyalty programme that gives existing customers free stuff if they promise to keep paying too much for their TV. There are four levels: Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Black; the idea being that the longer you've been with Sky the more you get.

New customers get automatically placed in the Silver band, and after three years they get upgraded to Gold. Anyone who's been with Sky for eight years goes to Platinum, and after a total of 15 years you wind up in Black. That's all retroactive too, so if you've been with Sky for more than 15 years already you're already eligible for Black-tier perks.

Just download Sky VIP from the My Sky app to get yourself set up. The app will then show you the perks that are available to you, and lets you access the welcome gift - which is a Sky Buy & Keep movie. That means you get a free film to download and keep, along with a physical copy that will be sent to your house.

Silver members get the least amount of stuff (obviously), but can enter exclusive prize draws, apply for 'money-can't-buy experiences' (like trips to the set of Game of Thrones), and free VIP tickets to various events - including cinema screenings, and sports events. Those tickets are allocated on a first come first serve basis, though there's no limit on how many you can apply for. Higher tier members will also get more entries into the prize draws, starting with one per Silver customer all the way up to four for Black customers.

Gold members will be able to access the new Sky Atlantic VIP channel that lets them see the channels programming 24 hours early, except for Game of Thrones and other simulcast programming. There's also free access to Sky Go Extra, for when you want to download programmes for mobile or offline viewing.

Platinum members get the added bonus of a free Sky fibre set-up, and any Sky mobile customers will get extra mobile data to add to their rollover allowances.

Black customers can get a free Sky Q box, Sky Q mini, and free installation of the lot. That doesn't sound so good if you're already a Sky Q customer, so Black members will also get priority engineer slots, a dedicated customer service phone number, and special advisers to help you out. Even if you ring the regular customer service number, Sky will push you to the front of the queue.

So if you haven't ditched Sky for Netflix or dodgy Kodi add-ons just yet, there are now some extra bits and pieces you can claim for yourself. Though I do wonder whether those "I'm leaving" discounts are suddenly going to dry up. [uSwitch | Independent]